Minutes to Midnight
by Clecky
Summary: A missing scene from season 6, episode 6: Abyss. Jack and Daniel are snarky at each other.


A/N: Please disregard the fact that Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight album was released in 2007 and season six of Stargate SG1 was released in 2002. I know the timeline doesn't work, but the musical analogies were too good to pass up. This is a missing scene (or should be) from episode 6 of season 6, Abyss.

Minutes to Midnight

"Somehow," Jack said bitterly, "it should say something about my life that during all this fu-" he stopped short and gave Daniel a wry, sideways smile, "_annoying_ torture, I've had the Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight album running through my head."

"Well, I'm not sure what that says, except that your taste in music is worse than I thought it was," Daniel said in a vague attempt to be supportive, slouching against the side of the cell with his hands- not that he had hands- in his pockets- not that he had pockets either. Unless they were some dimensional anomaly or something which Jack did not want to think about.

"So, the Ascension thing doesn't mean you get a harp to play after all? Have I been lied to all my life?" Jack sat on the nominal bench at the side of his cell. He suspected that at some point, it had been a decorative shelf set into the ceiling.

"Well, leaving aside the fact that I'm no angel, and that Ascension is only remotely analogous to the Christian concept of heaven, I'm no good at the harp anyway. Haven't got the dexterity for it." Daniel sighed and shook his head. "I didn't come to chat about your deplorable taste in music, Jack."

"And you didn't come to save me either," Jack said flatly. "I know you can do it, I know you won't do it. So let's talk about music, unless you'd rather talk about betrayal."

"Oh, God," Daniel said, swallowing convulsively. "I can't save you, Jack, not unless you Ascend."

"I can't do what you're doing, Danny. I would not be able to stand by if you were in my place. Call me an alpha male, type A, whatever. But the other Ascendants would have to hold me down in person to stop me breaking you out. How much of a future would I have if I did Ascend?" Jack asked slowly, tilting his head back and shutting his eyes. "The sarcophagus, it hasn't touched that part of me yet. The moral brakes were the first to go. I find it hard to care how many people I'd have to kill to get out of here. I can see how my pain is affecting you, and I find it harder not to ham it up and hurt you until you get me out."

"Who said honesty was the best policy?" Daniel snorted, sliding off his illusory glasses to swipe his hand over his eyes. "I wish…"

"'I can't be who you are'. Ha!" Jack said loudly and triumphantly. He snapped his fingers and smiled shakily. "I've been trying to remember the last line in Leave Out All the Rest for the last two times I've died. I knew it was relevant."

"You can be, Jack, if you want to." Daniel said, with typically painful intensity. He added, half-playfully, "Especially if I hum a few bars, you can fake it."

"No, I can't, because then I wouldn't be me. Remember when Teal'c got bitten by that weird alien bug and ripped out Junior to die faster? He said he'd rather die than be someone he wasn't." Jack pointed out in his best "I'm being reasonable, here, so why aren't you?" voice.

"You're arguing semantics, Jack!" Daniel snapped, slashing his hand through the air to cut off Jack's words.

"Semantics of a Linkin Park song, no less. Somehow I'm proud of myself for that," Jack agreed with a faint trace of smugness, though he leaned forward to bury his face in his hands. "How long have I got, Daniel?"

"How long 'til what?" Daniel asked with a hint of wariness, slowly approaching Jack.

"Until the Tooth Fairy comes and presents me with an Easter basket full of C4 and a naquadah-enhanced tactical nuke!" Jack snarled. "How long until the guards come?"

Daniel glanced upward and flinched. "Not long," he said softly. He met Jack's eyes and slowly shook his head. "Not long."

"Great." Jack buried his head in his hands again. "Well, if the great and sovereign Ba'al decides I'm not worth reviving again," he muttered while pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes, "make sure to invent some grand story about how I went out and lie to Carter, Teal'c and Hammond about how brave I was, okay? Maybe throw in something about spitting in his face and he got so pissed off he did something graphic and terminal involving two midgets, a turkey baster, half a bar of chocolate and a Zat gun."

"Where do you come up with these things?" Daniel asked, continuing without giving Jack a chance to answer. "I know, your 'dark past'. Just hang on, Jack. You can get through this."

"At this point, that's sort of what I'm afraid of," Jack commented. He heard the sound of the approaching guards and lay down on the floor so that sudden gravitational switch wouldn't throw him there.

"Goodbye, Spacemonkey. Go on before the guards stop thinking I'm crazy. And don't forget the icicles and radioactive cake!" He shouted to the empty room.

The guards stared at him suspiciously and muttered something that, loosely translated, probably meant "This one is as crazy as a really crazy thing from the really crazy planet where craziness was first spawned."

Jack bared his teeth, making sure that the gesture could not possibly be mistaken for a grin, and waved. That particular impudence earned him a blast from the zat gun. As he began to fall in all-too-familiar excruciating pain, he vaguely heard Daniel humming the refrain from "What I've Done", then a low curse.

"Dammit, Jack, you got that stuck in my head!"

Jack slumped to the floor with a smile on his face. The guards, with identical shrugs, grabbed an arm each and hauled him through the cell door.


End file.
